Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Julian Assange: Ecuador-bound?

Julian Assange, the WikilLeaks founder who was responsible for the biggest leak of secret government documents in history, has been offered diplomatic asylum in Ecuador. Although this is a tremendous moral boost for Assange and his supporters, it does not appear that Assange will be able to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

Assange, who has been living inside an office at Eucador's embassy for the past two months, believes that if he is extradited to Sweden, he will face a further extradition to the United States, where he might face trial for WikiLeaks-related charges.

Read more about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in the ANZ Newstand (Proquest) and the ANZ Reference Centre (Ebsco). The latter database contains a fascinating interview with Assange, conducted by Jamie Kelsey-Fry (see reference below), which discusses the power of state intelligence agencies, the criteria that WikiLeaks used to decide what to publish and the intense media scrutiny on Assange's personal life.